New to Channels - PC viewing questions

#1

Hi everyone! I'm new to Channels, having recently transitioned from the original Tablo DVR setup. I'm currently using a HomeRun 4K as my source and really enjoying exploring what Channels has to offer.

Since I do all my watching on PC, I've been trying out different viewing options and had a few questions. I started with the web interface, but found it a bit tricky to navigate. The player itself felt pretty minimal, and overall it didn’t quite match what I was used to.

Next, I switched to using BlueStacks with the Channels DVR Android app, and that’s been a much better fit! It feels closer to the Tablo experience, which I really liked. One feature I used a lot with Tablo was pressing the right arrow six times quickly to skip most commercial breaks. With Channels, it seems like the buffer might be smaller — I get 2–3 skips, then a short pause for buffering, and then the rest.

Is there a way to optimize the manual skipping behavior or tweak the buffer settings to make it smoother? I’m hoping it’s something simple I’ve overlooked. Would love to hear how others have approached this!

FWIW, I also gave the built-in commercial skip a try. I’ve found it a bit hit-or-miss in terms of accuracy. Sometimes it works well, but other times it skips too much or not quite enough.

#2

You can adjust the seek settings for both forward and backward seconds under admin/settings/clients. It is under Playback then Seek Options. You can have different settings for normal, movies and sports. I think this is what you are looking for. There are a lot of other settings here you can tweek by turning on the option 1st then it appears in the right column where you can apply your specific setting.

http://x.x.x.x:8089/admin/settings/clients

Edit: If you set anything here it overrides individual client settings

#3

Hey Rockies! Thank you for your reply.

Are you suggesting I change the FF interval to 3 minutes vs 30 seconds? Is there a way I can keep the stock 30 second FF interval but have the client buffer more so that I can rapidly FF?

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#4

If you are watching a recording it should work skipping as much as you want. If you are watching live it can only skip what you have before you catch up. If you want more buffer on live you would need to pause and let it build up enough buffer to skip as you want. It seems like an hour show is a third commercials now! You could pause for 20 minutes then start and skip as needed. Problem with that is when you exit the show and come back in you have lost all your buffer. I generally record the main things I always want like nightly news and watch shortly after it has recorded. This allows me to skip commercials. I set the news to record daily and only keep latest 3 days. If you just use the client buffer and pause for awhile that is limited to how much space your client device has available. Hope that helps.

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#5

Just so you know when you watch from a web page using the web ui the server will always transcode all streams live or recorded. Obviously this can cause buffering when skipping further than the transcoded data.

Now I’m unsure if this behavior is the same when using blue stacks. You could check by looking at the status page on the web ui on your phone while you are watching on blue stacks.

I would suggest you use a proper client and a tv or monitor and set delivery to original while on your home network. This will result in near instant skip aheads all throughout the recording. Channels is not meant to be primarily used on pc and it does a poor job when you use it that way. A $20 Onn streaming stick will work way better than web ui.

#6

I also like using a PC and the DVR web UI player for convenience in quickly checking a recording or watching things I will delete.

The devs won't support this and it leads to frustration when things don't work.

Best to stick with a supported client device, or use the VLC player integration from the web UI to play in VLC.

#7

I did some additional testing on the PC using my browser and noticed the following:

  • Web Player (default view): The right arrow key for fast-forward didn’t work. I clicked in the window to make sure it had focus, stopped and restarted the stream, exited and re-entered. But it never responded. This isn’t my preferred viewing method, but I wanted to confirm that it should skip 30 seconds.
  • Web Player (maximized): Right arrow fast-forwards 30 seconds.
  • Full Player (default view): Right arrow fast-forwards 30 seconds.
  • Full Player (Picture-in-Picture): Right arrow only fast-forwards 5 seconds.

Overall, the Full Player with Picture-in-Picture is my preferred viewing mode, but I’m not sure why the fast-forward interval in this mode is limited to 5 seconds. I tested multiple times. Stopping and restarting the stream and even watched about 40 minutes of a pre-recorded show. It consistently stayed at 5 seconds, regardless of buffer size.

Is there any way to make the right arrow key fast-forward 30 seconds in Full Player Picture-in-Picture mode, like in the other viewing options?

Also, I’m curious. Why does the web version have a different menu layout compared to the Android and iOS apps? Wouldn't it would be more intuitive if all versions used a similar interface?

If I can get the right arrow to fast-forward 30 seconds in Full Player Picture-in-Picture mode, I’ll be set! Thank you everyone for your replies and help so far!

#8

The developers don't support the web UI player as a supported client.

#9

If you must have a Web browser based client app, or PC app, Channels is not for you.
Plex or Emby/Jellyfin etc would be more appropriate.

#10

Agree, even if you get the app to work in BlueStacks on a PC it is a suboptimal way to watch. The guide is almost unusable in Android if you quickly try to skip around and the player is not great. The native web player will hang on you all the time if you try to use it to watch stuff. The web guide does work however.

Unfortunately using a PC client is a poor way to watch, the devs just don't want the fool with it for whatever reason. I've never understood why they don't want to try to fix the web player because it's part of their client, but it is what it is.

@chDVRuser and others have tried multiple times to try to get them to fix it and it's gone nowhere.

As he said the best way to do this if you insist on it is to use the VLC player integration. Don't bother with channels on a PC for playback, it's just an exercise in frustration.

#11

Which is nuts, because they put it in the web admin. If they didn't want to support it they shouldn't have put it in there.

#12

I don't necessarily disagree in that regard, but I have found the web UI player to be super handy to check a recording like chDVRuser does, and to check if a specific tuner is working as it should. I appreciate that the capability is there, even if not refined. With numerous clients being so cheap these days, I have gone with the clients for all other usual TV watching. It took a little getting used to, but it works for me.

#13

It's a player, it's not a channel/recording checker.

If they wanted to put in a disclaimer that it can only be used for checking playback, that's fine. But they don't.

So you either want to support it for what it is or you just throw it in and don't care, which I don't understand. Why bother?

#14

I still use it for quick checks, or watching short (like news) recordings at 1.5x or 2x speed.
When it works, it's great and saves me time. When it doesn't work it can be frustrating.

I have found that deleting the cache (if any), deleting the video index (now in Metadata folder, instead of Streaming folder) and remuxing problem recordings with ffmpeg will make it work most of the time. But that's spending too much time doing workarounds.

Now when a recording fails to play in the DVR web UI player, I just use another player. Don't want to get frustrated and spend more time using workarounds. I gave up hope that it will ever be fixed.

#15

I have to say it's might disappointing. Adjusting the web menu's to match the IOS/Andoid client is maybe a day or two of work, along with fixing the PIP FF to be 30 sec instead of 5. If there's 3 devs on the project, these are relatively minor fixes.

#16

Wow I think you have stumbled on the missing piece of the equation! They have never had anyone scope this work for them. Now that you have done this, there should be no barriers in implementing this enhancement request!

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#17

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